Video 5:30
Brumby under pressure

Updated
Mon 1 Mar 2010, 3:28 PM AEDT

John Brumby and his Government are under pressure to change their ways after the Altona by-election saw a large swing to the Liberal opposition.

Transcript

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA, PRESENTER: John Brumby and his Government are under pressure to change their ways after getting a slap in the face from voters in Labor's western suburbs heartland. Last Saturday's Altona by-election saw a big swing against Labor and gave a much-needed morale boost to Ted Baillieu's Opposition in the lead-up to the November state election. Now John Brumby is being warned to heed the lessons or suffer the consequences.

JOHN BRUMBY, PREMIER: This is a very strong result for the Labor Party. This is a fantastic result, an endorsement of Jill Hennessy.

TED BAILLIEU, OPPOSITION LEADER: John Brumby needs to get the message.

JILL HENNESSY, LABOR MEMBER: We will fight high and low to keep delivering fantastic services to you.

LIBERAL CANDIDATE: Melbourne does not stop at the Westgate Bridge, it continues west.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: Political history is littered with governments that haven't listened to the people.

In Opposition, Jeff Kennett used this song from the musical Les Miserable to send a message to the then Labor Government, thrown from office in 1992. Seven years on, Kennett then made the fatal mistake himself. The Victorian Labor Government last Saturday had its first real electoral shock since coming into power, a 12 per cent swing at the Altona by-election.

NEIL MITCHELL, 3AW: They all think that they're better than their predecessor and will not have any problems dealing with the crises that arise, and John Brumby should be into crisis management at the moment and he doesn't seem to be.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: When Mr Brumby was made Premier he assured the public action was on the way.

JOHN BRUMBY (archive footage, 2008): If you're asking me will there be a lot more activity in this space by the Government over the next two and a half three years, the answer is: there will be. Do I accept that there are problems and challenges in this area? Yes, I do.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: Two years later after the by-election shock in Altona, Mr Brumby is singing the same tune.

JOHN BRUMBY: You're gonna see renewed determination, energy, vigour and action as we work through this year to get these plans on the ground and to make a difference to the people that we represent.

NEIL MITCHELL: I don't think John Brumby's performing well personally at the moment. I think Ted Baillieu's starting to be seen as a legitimate option. But the Premier sounds defensive. He's not convincing. It's almost like he can't believe why people have stopped being nice to him or started questioning him.

BRIAN BOYD, TRADES HALL COUNCIL: I listened to what he said after the Altona by-election, but I think there's been further discussions since then and I'm hoping hard heads will prevail inside the party machine to make sure that the lessons of Altona were really learnt and we see new things happening quickly.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: Trade Hall Council boss Brian Boyd is an ALP veteran and on the Government's strategic planning committee for the coming state election.

BRIAN BOYD: I think there was a big message for the Brumby Government. I they have to take the message of the big swing very seriously. We're only eight months out from the locked-in state election, and if John doesn't take it seriously, then it could be a very dangerous situation for his government.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: The Premier has identified public transport as the key issue that turned voters away from Labor at the poll. 3AW's Neil Mitchell says his listeners, many of whom live in Labor Party heartland, are losing patience with the Premier's excuses on public transport.

NEIL MITCHELL: He goes on about this nonsense about how the December train arrived in August and got on the rails in January and the January train arrived in December. It's just gobbledegook. Where are the bloody trains? That's what we wanna know. That's a big area for him: police, law and order. A huge area. The Indian students he hasn't handled well, which I feel some sympathy for him, but he hasn't handled it well. All those issues, he's gotta get on top and look like he's leading and in control.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: New Transport Minister Martin Pakula has the onerous task of winning back public confidence in the state's troubled public transport system.

MARTIN PAKULA, TRANSPORT MINISTER: I don't think there is any doubt that one of the issues that will be a key issue for voters and a key issue for the community more generally is public transport. I'm under no illusion about that. And quite frankly, it should be an issue that the community is keenly interested in, because we've made significant investment in public transport. We've made significant investment now and for the future. And we recognise it's an issue of enormous interest to the community.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: The letters pages of the state's daily newspapers were filled with strong messages to the Government this week. John Brumby says he's listening, but some say he should also be accepting some of the blame.

NEIL MITCHELL: It's an awful situation, isn't it, and maybe it's partly our fault in the media, but they don't seem able to say,"Yeah, I mucked that up," or, "I'm sorry, I got that wrong," or,"Yeah, we're having another look at it." And if you listen, John Brumby's worst than most at this. If you listen to him, everything's terrific, they very rarely make a mistake on anything. He's admitted mistakes on myki, but blamed somebody else. Just a little bit of mea culpa'd help, I think.